Secret worlds: Awareness
by gaiachild
Summary: In a world where various supernatural forces are just starting to become aware of each other, a group of multiple backgrounds tries to keep the paranomal shielded from the eyes of the normal.  Marvel, DC and various cartoon X-Over.


**Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men Evolution, W.I.T.C.H., TMNT and Blade. As well as anything else that will turn up later, but I'll go into more detail then. Furthermore I don't make any profit with this either.**

She had always suspected irony to hurt, but this truly was too much. Like half a day ago, she had been an ordinary teenage girl with unusual, but still normal problems. Like being an only child with only one parent who refused to tell her about her father. And kept her sheltered, because of her supposed "_skin condition_". Though by now she doubted that was the only reason. And add to the sheltered life that most people at school treated her like an outsider because she dared to dress different than what was deemed "normal" by high school fashion. Sure, that had the positive side effect that she didn't become friends with people she couldn't stand anyway, like the kind of people who judged others by looking different. Still, being an outsider wasn't such a cheerful life, however, truth be told, she had gotten used to it.

And then, when she was finally able to enjoy herself without any of her schoolmates giving her a hard time, even being accepting (though only being accepted because the lead baseball jock had taken an interest was rather insulting), that big oaf had to stumble into her, smash her to the ground and then ruin everything by touching her. And she didn't even want to think about what happened then.

Point being, she currently was running away from home, having been on the road for hours. She had no watch, but suspected that it would be morning soon. She tried hitchhiking for a while. Unfortunately, the road was pretty empty, and the few times anyone had stopped, she hadn't really been comfortable with the kind of looks she had received from the supposed good Samaritans.

And to put the icing on the cake, it had started to rain too. Like it couldn't become any more cliché. Here she was, a young girl walking through the rain, not even having an umbrella, or a hood for that matter. With no money, no identification, no food, and on her way to New York. Yes, New York. There wasn't really any good reason to go there, but she didn't know anyone where she could crash, and NY was simply the first place that came to her mind. At least it should be easy to submerge there, after all the main reason for running away was that she did not want to be found. And it would probably not be easy to hide from what she was running.

With these dark thoughts in mind, she almost overheard the car approaching from behind. Seeing how she didn't think she could go on any longer, and determined to try her luck one more time, she turned around and held out her thumb. Drenched to the bone, with every muscle in her legs aching, sitting down just sounded to good as to not try it.

And indeed, the approaching car seemed to be slowing down as soon as she was engulfed by the headlights. The car, which turned out to be a grey van, changed lanes and headed for her. Although the van seemed to wobble quite a bit, like the driver was drunk. And when thinking about it, the vehicle didn't seem to be slowing down fast enough. The girls eyes widened as the van came at her with screeching brakes, but the wet road didn't seem to be helping matters. Only a desperate leap to the side saved her from becoming road kill, the van passing her by inches and spraying her with even more water.

Well, at least she landed comparably soft in the mud next to the road. However, add getting mud all over her already drenched body didn't exactly improve her mood. Cursing, she got back on her feet and stormed to the van which now stood still at the side of the road a few meters ahead of her. Releasing all the anger that had pent up during the day, she ripped open the passenger door and yelled:

"Are ya crazy? Ya could have killed me, asshole! Where did ya ever get yah license?"

From the driver's seat, a blonde girl around her age gave her a slightly remorseful, but mostly annoyed look.

"Sorry, this is first time I am driving during rain, and you are quite hard to make out in that getup…."

The blonde stopped mid sentence in her explanation and gaped at the hitchhiker like she had three eyes.

"What?" the girl asked offended. She was used to odd looks due to her makeup, but this one was downright offensive.

Wordlessly, the driver turned the driving mirror in her direction. After a short glimpse in the same, the hitchhiking girl turned red. Not that this was visible under the mud and the makeup which had been completely messed up by the rain, making her look like a zombie.

Annoyed, and intending to safe as much dignity as possible, she huffed:

"Something to look at, Blondie?"

For a moment it seemed like said blonde was formulating a nasty retort, but thinking better of it, she just waved dismissively and answered: "Not at all. So, you coming in or what?"

Pissed as she was, the hitchhiker simply let out an affirming grunt and climbed into the van, slamming the door behind her. Without even bothering to look at her anymore, the blonde pointed her thumb over her shoulder and stated:

"There should be a towel in the back, and if anything fits, you can borrow some spare clothes, depending on how long you intend to be onboard."

Still fuming, the drenched girl muttered a thanks and climbed into the back of the van. The dim light coming from the front revealed it to be completely empty, safe for two big trunks. One of them pink of all things.

Guessing that those were the most likely place to hold a towel, the drenched hitchhiker moved to open one of them. Unfortunately it only contained lots of food, most of it in cans, books and a laptop. Well, off to try the pink one then.

Much to her relieve, the towels and clothes she found in there did not match the color of the trunk itself. Most of them anyway.

After making sure the blonde was more occupied with trying to start the engine than looking in the back, the hitchhiker decided to keep her pants (they were rather waterproof) and simply exchange her shirt for a khaki one with long sleeves. To her delight, she also found a pair of velvet gloves.

Just as she had finished changing and cleaning her face with a towel, the other girl had managed to start the van. While she continued driving, the hitchhiker climbed back into the front and fastened her seatbelt.

* * *

><p>A couple of minutes were spent with cold silence. Finally the driver asked:<p>

"So, what's your name?"

The passenger froze. She hadn't thought about that. Considering that the people she was running from could apparently shift forms, it should be easy for them to gain the trust of anyone she might come to trust with her name. So being honest about that was out of the question. Her mind racing to come up with a name she vaguely remembered one of the costumed weirdoes having referred to her as a…

"It's Rouge." She answered. "Just Rouge." Well, if irony had to hurt, the least one could do was to appreciate it.

After a skeptical glance, the driver said:

"Yeah, whatever you like. I am Cornelia."

Okay, so in retrospective Rouge realized that her first name alone would have sufficed as well, after all it wasn't an uncommon name. But to be honest, she never really liked her first name, and Rouge had a nice, rough touch to it.

Deciding it was her turn to break the ice, Rouge asked:

"So, what made someone like ya run away from home?"

"Pray tell what someone like me would be, goth chick?"

"Well gee, let's see. Blonde hair, shoes that look like they were the most expensive article of yah clothes, two fully packed trunks, one of them pink, and a van ya obviously have trouble driving. Seems like a typical bimbo who stole her dads car after throwing a hissy fit because her parents blocked the platinum card after she spent everything on a new wardrobe to look good for the fifteenth boyfriend, adding to the F in English."

"Oh my, how original. Especially coming from the vampire with more make up than skin in her face who ran away in the middle of the night after four heart grinding poems about the death of her hamster couldn't ease her pain, which now causes her to seek out the next motel with a bath so that she can become one with the darkness inside her heart while slitting her wrists."

"For your information, there are various differences between gothic's and emo's. Besides, ah don't do poetry."

"And for your information, we blondes might only make up two percent of the world's population, but that never caused me to flunk a test." After another moment of awkward silence, she added: "Wannabe vampire".

"High school Barbie."

"Whatever."

"Indeed."

….

….

..

"Senseless banter aside" Rouge resumed the conversation in an actual understanding voice "What happened in yah life that forced ya too abandon everything you took for granted?"

Cornelia let out a depressed sigh. "I guess something that had been coming for a long time. It's hard to explain, so let's just say a while ago me and some of my friends were thrust into something that was way over our heads. Unfortunately we thought we could handle it, not that we had much choice in the matter. As it turned out, we couldn't handle it. And just a few days ago, my oldest friend and… damn it, we messed up royally and they…

She had to fight back a sob but quickly regained her posture

"… they paid for it. And now that it is supposed to be over, I finally had time to really think about everything."

After realizing she was not going to continue, Rouge finished for her:

"So ya came to the conclusion that whatever it was that happened would never leave ya alone unless ya did something, and the best thing to do was running away."

"Yeah, that sums it up rather nicely. And what is your story?"

"Mine is far more recent. Actually just about half a day ago. And to make a long story short, as it turned out everything Ah thought wha-, eh, who Ah thought Ah was, who ma family was, turned out to be a lie. And not just a "there is no santa claus" lie, rather a "Yah parents only feed ya so that they can eat ya" kind of lie. Plus from what little sense Ah can make of all the weirdness, ma own damn mama seems to be trying to manipulate me into something crazy, not to mentioning life threatening. But Ah decided that nobody, not even ma mama would do that to me. Ah decided to show them!"

Cornelia cut in sarcastically, but not without a little empathy:  
>"But let me guess, since the ones who you are up against seem unnaturally strong, unfairly stronger than you, you can't really SHOW them much. Leaving the most satisfactory option to say `Screw you, I am going´. Yeah, I can relate to that."<p>

"In that case, nice to meet ya. Yah are actually pretty sensible for someone who labels everybody not like her as losers." Rouge said with a grin.

Cornelia grinned back. "Tragedy will do that to you. And for someone who spends her night in graveyards, you are nice company."

* * *

><p>Even though the tension was eased after both girls found out that they had similar issues (issues both didn't dare to reveal completely), they didn't talk much afterwards. They shared a laugh after finding out that both of them were heading for New York due to lack of a better plan, however it became apparent that they didn't share enough interests to make conversation. So aside from a short quarrel about what kind of music to play, which ended in simply turning the radio of, the rest of the ride was once again turned into awkward silence.<p>

When the sun dawned again, the rain finally stopped. Since it was the first time on the run for both girls, they agreed not to take pit stops. Instead they shared some canned peaches and beans, along with bottled water. During lunch Cornelia tried to start a conversation about favorite labels, but that didn't go anywhere. As it turned out the only common interest they had was running away from something. And because either one of them was reluctant to talk about that, they decided that silent company was better than no company.

One hour before noon they stopped the van somewhere on the side of the road and rested for a while, after all none of them got any sleep last night. Fortunately Cornelia had packed two sleeping backs, in case one of them broke, as she said it. Rouge mumbled something about "spoiled, delusional idiot", however both of them were too tired to argue.

After they got back on the road, it took them until evening to reach New York. Once they entered the suburbs, Rouge asked:

"So, since ya obviously had more time than me to plan yah journey, do ya have any idea where to stay for now?"

"I booked a room in a youth hostel somewhere in Queens via internet for a few nights, until I find something more permanent. You know where Queens is, right?"

"As far as Ah know near the golden gate bridge."

Cornelia smirked. "Figures."

Rouge didn't like the look on Cornelia's face. It looked too much like that of those cheerleaders who used to diss her for being goth. "What figures."

"Well, that you pinpoint locations in relation to NY most famous suicide spot." The blonde girl explained matter of factly.

Rouge honestly considered the idea of trying out her weird live and memory sucking powers on Cornelia. Instead she shot back :

"Considering how many times Ah told ya that us Goths ain't suicidal, Ahm starting to believe the lack of oxygen in overcrowded malls has had a bad influence on yah brain. And I blame yah overly expensive perfumes for making me crazy enough to ask if Ah can room with yah bimbo hide."

"As long as you don't try to suck my blood while I sleep, sure. Just don't expect me to bestow a coffin."

Rouge let out a long sigh. "Ah am so goanna regret this."

"Feeling is mutual." Cornelia huffed. "Anyhow, we have reached our stop." Right after finishing the sentence, she brought the van to a stop. Before Rouge could object, the blonde girl had already stepped out of the vehicle.

Disbelieving Rouge departed as well and gazed at her surroundings. After hearing the back of the van being opened, she joined Cornelia there, confused and slightly annoyed.

"Hate to break it to ya, but Queens is located in Manhattan, which is an island. And we just reached the end of the suburbs. By the way, Ah may not have a licence, but this sign over there surely say's 'no parking'. So ya probably should work on yah…"

"I know, it's all part of the plan." Cornelia interrupted her while forcefully shoving one of her trunks into the arms of the goth girl. "You were partially right when we first meet. This is the car of my daddy, and I did steal it. However, I love my daddy, which is why I will leave his van here so that the police can tell him where it is."

By now she had taken her second trunk out of the car and closed the back.

"Ah see. And ya can't leave the van any closer to queens because…."

"Because my daddy loves me too, and is rich enough to easily afford private investigators. New York might be big enough to hide, but I have no intention of making my exact location obvious. Now move it before someone takes notice of us breaking traffic laws." Cornelia urged while gentely but determined pushing Rouge away from the vehicle and towards the sky scrapers of the main city."

"Alright, alright, ah get it. No reason to get pushy." Rouge snapped irritated while slapping the blonde girl's arms away. "And let me guess, in order to elude Future investigators, we won't take the bus, because a driver of one is likely to remember two girls with a pink trunk all alone at the end of the day."

The amused smirk she received in response was answer enough.

* * *

><p>Hours later, both of them could hardly believe that they managed to not get lost yet. While Cornelia was in possession of a city map, neither one of them was used to metropolises like NY, and they avoided asking for directions. When Cornelia suggested a shortcut through a back alley, Rouge interjected:<p>

"Ya did notice that the sun has gone under not too long ago, right?"

"Sure, but how is that a problem? I'd have thought you'd be right in your element now." The blonde joked.

"Nah, Ah was worried what not being able to admire yah own reflection in the windows may do to ya." The goth yoked back. "Seriously though, I hope ya ain't sheltered enough not to know that it isn't really safe for women to be out alone after dark. Especially in dark alleys."

Cornelia made a calming gesture: "Don't worry. In case some scumbag tries something, I am more than prepared to deal with it." In her voice laid a confidence that make Rouge suspect the blonde knew what she was talking about. Still she asked:

"How? Ya got a taser in yah pocket? Or pepper spray?"

Her companion grinned maliciously. "Something FAR better."

While Rouge didn't find a hazy answer such as that very assuring, her legs were aching (hopefully as much as those of the bimbo) and if worse came to worse, she had survived meddling with people who had knives in their hands and threw lightning or something. Surely she would be able to handle common street thugs.

Unfortunately, after they entered the alley Rouges concern was soon proven correct when a man stepped out of the shadows right after the alley took a turn and they couldn't be seen from the street anymore.

The man was quite a perplexing sight. With his well ironed trousers, white shirt and elegant black suit, along with the tie, he seemed to be more fitting for the surroundings of a lawyer's office than a dark, dirty alley such as this. But the way he carried himself, like he was owning the place (and took pride in it), while wearing a expression that showed distaste with the situation as well as a grim anticipation, somehow made him seem right at home.

After a brief moment of hesitation, both girl silently agreed to try and simply walk pass the guy. What stopped them was the man beginning to talk, like musing to himself:

"It truly is a sign of how low things have gotten for our kind when the wolf has to feed on sheep in wolf pelts. Children these ages are simply atrocious, never knowing their place."

Before the girls had the chance to take offense at that, another voice answered from behind them:

"Come on, guys like you make this crap way more complicated than it needs to be with your half assed philosophy."

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, another man had appeared and caught Rouges arms from behind in an unnaturally strong grip from behind before she could even turn around, inducing a startled gasp from her. Not even acknowledging her, the man went on:

"Me, I like my food no matter the package. So quit whining, I am sure a blue blood such as yourself appreciates blondes."

"Barbie, this better than a taser thing would really come in handy now!" Rouge urged while futile struggling against the new guy. He seemed to be the opposite from the man in suit, with worn out bikers clothes, three day beard and a shaved head that displayed a snake tattoo.

"I'm on it, I'm on it." Cornelia answered a little panicked while frantically scanning the area like she was searching for something without finding it. The guy in suit was slowly coming closer to her, still not really acknowledging her completely, like one may not really acknowledge a chicken about to be slaughtered. He frowned displeased.

"And another sign for the decay of our society would be me having to work with filth like you. If it wasn't for the presence of the BLADE in town, I'd never graze the likes of you with my presence."

He had nearly reached Cornelia and was beginning to raise his arms, when the blonde girl suddenly shouted:

"GUARDIANS UNITE!"

Rouge gaped in wonder and horror how Cornelia was suddenly engulfed by a green glow, which surprised the thug holding her enough to actually loosen his grip. The glow soon vanished. In its stead stood Cornelia who seemed to have grown by five inches and was now wearing a turquoise shirt with sleeves that reached to her wrist, but it left her naval exposed. In addition to that she wore a violet skirt, which reached down to her feet, but had a cut in the side to allow full leg movement. Her shoes had been replaced with knee high boots the same color as the skirt. The most amazing change however were the two little butterfly like wings on her shoulders. And her hair seemed to have grown as well.

Before anyone had a chance for closer inspection though, Cornelia quickly moved her right arm in the suited mans direction as if she wanted to shove him away, despite him being way out of her reach. It came as a surprise to everyone when a huge chunk of concrete in front of the blonde's feet was ripped out of the ground by an invisible force and slammed into the man's chest, sending him flying.

Under other circumstances Rouge might have been frozen by the shock. However, since she already got a huge dose of paranormal occurrences not too long ago, she mentally thanked her mother for insisting on her taking self defense classes instead. Slipping out of the thugs grip, the grabbed his right arm, leaned forward as forcefully as possible and this way flung him over herself and on his back. Being thrown on a stony surface like that should have knocked the wind out of most people, but to her surprised shock he simply stood up like nothing happened. Grinning, he said:

"Nice. I love it when the food wants' to play." With those words, he flashed her a grin. A grin containing fangs! Rouges eyes widened.

Over at Cornelia's side of things, the suited man also shrugged of the rock to the chest amazingly easy. With a feral snarl, he displayed fangs as well, in addition his hands having seemingly turned into claws. His former civilized demeanor washed away, he lunged at the blonde with a roar.

His talons missed her by far as Cornelia jumped into the air. The little wings on her back began flapping rapidly like those of a hummingbird and defying all laws of physic and logic, actually made her fly. Facing the surprised man from several feet's up now, with a simple flick of her wrists she made dozens of bricks break out of the wall next to her and come down on her attacker.

While the thug slowly came at Rouge, not interested in how his companion was faring, a look of glee on his face like the cat playing with a wounded mouse, the goth girl ripped the glove from her right hand. Surprising the thug, she made a wild leap at him, shoved her hand in his face and…

… nothing happened. No sudden headache, no flow of images and voices, no rush from having new power surging through her. Just the usual feeling of skin touching skin.

Rouge frozen in shock, cursing the horrible timing of her power to go away, the thug frozen out of surprise, it was him who recovered first. Grinning maliciously, his hand closed around her throat, cutting of her air and lifted her up like she weighed nothing more than a baby. She struggled, kicked and scratched his arms, but his grip was like iron.

After being able to block some of the bricks with his arms (ruining his suit in the progress), the rest smashed in the face and chest of Cornelia's adversary, leaving bloody gashes and three lost teeth. Unfortunately that only seemed to enrage him further, as he leapt into the air as well, higher than any mere mortal should be able to. He didn't fly, alas he was still fast and high enough to knock the surprised Cornelia straight out of the air and send her crashing down on the concrete.

The blonde managed to slow down her fall a bit with her flight powers and land (painfully) on all fours. Additionally, the part of her body where she had been beaten, her left arm, hurt too much to be moved for the time being.

She did a quick scan of the situation. The bald thug was still holding Rouge up in the air with one arm, while his other hand grabbed one of his captive's arms and he was slowly leading it to his fangs, enjoying watching the girl squirm. Suited man had landed and was running towards Cornelia.

Raising her still functional arm, she lifted her two forgotten trunks into the air (without touching) and let both of them smash into her attacker, once more sending him on his back. But the trunks didn't stop there, they returned to her in a bow, hitting the bald thug on the head on the way, causing him to drop his victim. After the trunks landed in front of her feet, she stretched her arm out again, made a fist like grabbing something and then yanked it back towards her body. This caused Rouge to be yanked of her feet and be hurled right next to Cornelia, landing on her rear.

"Hold on tight!" she commanded. Eagerly gasping for air, Rouge complied, not really in the mood to question anything.

The two fanged attackers were just about to charge at the two girls again when the blonde girl bashed her palm on the ground. As a result, the earth literally seemed to swallowed the them and the trunks whole. The ground opened underneath them and right after they had fallen down, it closed up again, nothing remaining to remember of the man-sized hole that had been there a moment ago.

* * *

><p>It was an ordinary day in the New Yorker sewers. As ordinary as days in those sewers got. That was until suddenly a small part of the roof opened and two girls, along with trunks, plummeted in. Fortunately for them they missed the "water" by a few inches, and their heads didn't collide with the floor, but with the trunks instead.<p>

Shortly after landing, both scrambled to their feet. Cornelia made the trunks levitate next to her, still clutching her left arm to her side, urged Rouge to follow her and both started to run away. Without having any actual idea where they were going exactly, but as long as it was away from the people with fangs, it was okay.

"Holy crap, those were vampires. VAMPIRES! Vampires are freaking real. God damnit, and what are you supposed to be? A fairy or something? And just WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?"

Rouge shouted almost hysterically. Cornelia answered, sounding equally freaked out:

"Damn it, I don't know. Nothing of this was supposed to happen. I only wanted to get away from stuff like this. God, earth was supposed to be free of such things."

"Now what in god's name do you mean with EARTH was supposed to UMPF"

Rouge didn't get further because she bumped into Cornelia, who had suddenly come to a halt, standing stiff as a statue.

"Please tell me this ain't real." The blonde girl pleaded with a voice that sounded like she was about to cry. "Please tell me you are not seeing what I'm seeing."

Perplexed, Rouge looked over Cornelia's shoulder. When she then saw the most bizarre thing she had ever seen in her life (and considering the last few days, that said a lot), she was close to crying as well. They had reached the entrance to a large cavern of the sewers. And in there an unbelievable sight was revealed to them. Namely four green creatures who looked like a mixture of a human with a turtle, wielding Japanese close combat weapons and wearing nothing but differently colored headbands, who were fighting about two dozen people in ninja getup, also armed with Japanese weapons. And some improvised like baseball bats or tire irons.

The pair could only watch with mouth agape as the turtle people, despite being outnumbered, strangely seemed to be winning. Not only were they a lot faster than one would expect from…. a turtle walking upright, their movements also seemed to be way more fluid, disciplined and gracefully than those of the ninja, who simply seemed to try and hit something without any deeper thought. Also noticeable was that the turtles, despite bleeding green blood from various little cuts, avoided deadly force. Sure, they saw one with two katanas slicing through a ninjas weapon of choice, a chain, one thrusting his sai through an enemies forearm, one with a staff use it to break a ninjas foot and one with nunchuks bring them down hard enough on a arm to hear bones break, the green warriors only disabled and avoided killing blows. While the ninjas seemed to try there hardest to kill something.

Then one of the black clad figures, as well as the katana wielding turtle noticed the girls. Shouting "Witnesses!", the ninja whipped out a pair of throwing stars. As he threw them at Cornelia and Rouge, the two tried to duck out of the way. However they needn't have bothered, for the katana turtle, with a blue headband, had jumped between them and the thrower, the stars impacting on his shell without causing much damage. "RUN!" He shouted at them, and they complied eagerly, simply wanting to get away from the madness. To avoid being hit by other thrown object, Cornelia quickly created a small stone wall behind them, shielding them from sight.

Both of them ran as fast as they could. They finally stopped long after the sounds of battle had vanished behind them, catching their breath. Cornelia tried out using her left arm again. First it seemed okay, but when she stretched it out completely, she hissed in pain. Asking if she was okay, Rouge placed her right hand on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort. Where her gloveless index finger came in contact with Cornelia's exposed skin at the base of her neck.

Immediately both girls screamed in pain. While Cornelia felt her energy rapidly being sucked out of her, her muscles becoming slack, Rouge, internaly combusting with the rush of new strength, saw a stream of images running through her head, albeit her vision seemed to be clouded. Cornelia's reflection in a mirror while she was combing her hair. A little girl who was most likely her sister, judging by the hair color, who seemed to be arguing with her. Two adults sitting with her at a table.

The images became clearer. Now she saw four other girls. They were gathered in an empty restaurant, where an elderly lady of Chinese heritage was showing them a violet glowing amulet.

The flow of images became more rapid, violent. She saw portals to a strange, dark place. Saw Cornelia and the other girls, dressed similarly to how Cornelia was dressed at the moment, battling nightmarish creatures, wielding the power of the very elements themselves. And above all, there was a tall, white haired man in some strange robes, watching them with cold eyes, wielding terrible powers and laughing at their anguish…

With a scream, the two pulled away from each other, ending the skin contact. Rouge stood there, watching her hands and the blonde girl kneeling before her and breathing frantically while trying to make sense of anything. She was desperate for answerers. Nothing added up!

Calming her breathing, Cornelia slowly arose and turned to face the goth girl. With a forced expression of calm control, she looked into her eyes and acknowledge the presence of confusion and guilt, as well as the lack of evil intentions.

"Alright" she said. "I guess both of us suspected that we had similar problems from the very start. I propose before we worry about the craziness we just witnessed, we explain the craziness that is each other first."

"Sounds like a plan" Rouge agreed. "Tough perhaps we should make sure that we are save from the craziness we left behind first."

Simply stomping down her foot, Cornelia made stone walls come out of the ground and hit the ceiling, effectively barricading them in a new room. Fortunately they were right underneath a sever cover that had a streetlight shine through the bars and give enough dim light to see one another.

"Is that sufficient?"

"… Oh hell, Ah don't care anymore. Yes, it will do. Mind if as start? Ya seem to have more more experience with this freaky business than me, perhaps ya know what is happening to me."

Cornelia jus nodded.

"Well, where do Ah begin? See, before I met ya on the street, I was just your ordinary outcast kid in some town in Mississippi, living with ma mama. And kept me indoor most of the time because apparently Ah had some skin condition that she wouldn't name. Anyhow, so this one night Ah'm at a party and someone stumbles into me. Suddenly the same thing that just happened happens. Only that he lost consciousness. And I could suddenly bounce people twice ma size out of the way like the baseball player said guy is."

"Of course Ah run home. And there some freaks in skintight jumpsuit who called themselves Y-Men or something turn up and start chasing me. And let me tell ya, being hunted by guys with razors in their hands, control over the weather, who have blue fur, go through walls and shoot freaking laser out of their eyes ain't a nice experience."

"Believe me, I can relate." Cornelia said with growing sympathy.

"Thanks. Unfortunately that wasn't really the worst of it." Rouge continued. "Ya see, after I somehow managed to get away from them, ma first instinct is to find ma mama, naturally. And I found her, back at home. But the thing is, when I arrived I saw her talking to one of the guys who was chasing her. And right before ma eyes that guy suddenly.… shifted his appearance into that of a blue skinned, red haired woman. And from the looks of it, that person was friends with ma mama."

"So Ah sneak closer, hoping to find out what everything is about. And listening to them talk, I find out that the people who were chasing me didn't really want to hurt me. When _they_ attacked me, that was the blue woman posing as them. As far as Ah can tell, both she and the people in spandex wanted to recruit me because apparently Ah am a "Mutant" like they are. It seems like the spandex guys would have simply asked, and the blue lady couldn't allow that, because she said she wants me to help her and her little group, whatever that one was called, to help some other guy to wage war on humanity."

Cornelia interrupted: "And that was when you decided that you didn't want any part in that confusing mess and ran away?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Beforehand, Ah also shouted at ma mama that Ah hate her. Looking back that might have been a dumb decision, after all the blue woman could have gone after me. But I just felt so betrayed about her deliberately drawing me into such madness, allow that friend of hers to hunt me like an animal, I just had to let it out. And fortunately the blue woman seemed too shocked to go after me."

She frowned. "However, ma stupid energy sucking powers seems to have problems functioning when they really should."

"Really? How is that?" The blonde girl asked.

"Back in the alley, Ah touched that… whatever those two were. And nothing happened. Otherwise…" She laid a finger on her chin and gave the issue some more thought.

"Ah can't believe Ah'm saying that, but if those guys really were **vampires**, It does make some kind of sense. After all vampires are supposed to be unDEAD. Perhaps ma power only works on living things. Actually, Ah better don't think about what would have happened had it worked on the vampire. Ah may have sucked out his death, who knows what that would have done to me. Still…"

She pointed her hands on one of the recently constructed walls and concentrated. Nothing happened.

"Eh, what exactly are you trying to do?" questioned the constructor of said walls.

"Ah told ya about me suddenly being as strong as a baseball player after touching one, right. When those Y-Men were after me, I also touched them. And absorbed the powers they had for a short time, meaning weather control and blue fur. That's how I even managed to avoid them. But I don't seem to be able to use whatever power ya have. Or does it have any other usage requirements than, Ah don't know, thinking about moving stone?"

Cornelia thought about everything she had been told for a while. Then she said. "No, actually not. However, I think I have an explanation. The people you had to deal with referred to themselves and you as **Mutants**, right?". She got a nod. "Hm, that would mean that those powers are something genetic, as strange as weather control and laser eyes caused by genetics may sound. Or do you have any other idea how you got your powers?" A headshake. "Well, in that case the answer is obvious. You can't use my power because it isn't genetic. It's magic."

"… It's magic?" Rouge asked. "That sounds rather corny, but given that we just witnessed a sword wielding turtle save our lives Ah'll go with it."

"Yeah, it sounded strange to me as well the first time." Cornelia admitted while shrugging her shoulders. "By the way, you made the right choice with running away from it. I unfortunately did not. Seeing how it is my turn to come clean, I'll try to make a long story short. Not long ago, I was a member of a team called "The guardians of the veil"."

"Were that the four girlfriends of yours?" Rouge interrupted "The one with the glasses, the red head, the…"

An alarmed and suspicious stare from the blonde made her stop. Hastily she explained: "Right, sorry, Ah forgot to tell ya about that aspect of ma powers. When I touch people Ah not only take energy and powers, ah also absorb some of their memories. Though it is to brief to make much sense of them."

Cornelia continued to stare at her, it was evident that she was displeased: "How much did you see?" She demanded accusingly.

"As I said, not much. A few scenes of what I presume is your family, your friends, how the old lady showed you that amulet. And this strange, dark medieval place with the monsters and the guy in the dress."

Cornelia searched the Mutants face for a hint that she was holding something back, but found nothing. Sighing, she continued. "Okay, let's restart. The place you saw was Meridian. As it turned out, there are multiple dimensions beside this once. And Meridian is a place where the technology may have stayed in the dark ages, but they have magic. And various races straight out of some nerds D&D fantasy. And normal humans for some reason. And centuries ago, a tyrant called Phobos, that's the guy in the dress, took over Meridian".

"Wait" Rouge interrupted once more. "Wasn't Phobos the Greek god of fear?"

Cornelia nodded. "Yeah, Taranee, the smart one in my old group, said that as well. No idea if the real one was inspired by the Greek guy or if the Greek guy was inspired by him. Anyhow, to stop Phobos from conquering other worlds, a council of _wise" _the sarcasm in her voice was evident "people residing in a place called Kandrakar, supposedly the center of the universe or something, created the **veil**, a barrier around Meridian. Unfortunately the veil tends to get gashes. That's why Kandrakar elected the guardians, a five headed group of women who have control over the elements and existed during the generations since long ago to combat evil forces or something, to become the guardians of the veil and take care of having nothing get through the gashes/portals and close them."

"And my friends and me turned out to be the guardians of this generation. I am the earth guardian, obviously. Unfortunately, Phobos chose this time to become offensive, forcing us to take the fight to him instead of simply keeping care of the veil. Then…sigh…. We managed to defeat Phobos and his minions. But we paid a high price for it. There were some… tragic happenings I am not comfortable speaking about. Let's just say, after it was over, I simply couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't stand how everyone in the real world went on in blissful ignorance about what had almost happened, how I couldn't explain my parents why I didn't feel like going out, eating my supper or couldn't laugh about their bad jokes."

"But most of all, I couldn't stand how my supposed FRIENDS wanted to keep going on as if nothing had happened! You see, the _WISE_ guys in kandrakar wanted us to do more guardian work. More tasks to put ourselves and those around us in danger. As a lifelong responsibility no less. Well, I decided that I owed those creeps nothing and quit. Unfortunately I couldn't get rid of these damn magic. So to stop the other guardians and Kandrakar to stop pestering me about returning on duty, and to no longer having to bear my ignorant surroundings, I did what I should have done from the start and took things into my own hands. Naturally, like we already established, the only real option was running away."

For some time, both remained silent, musing about the depressing hands life had dealt them In the end Rouge stated.

"Turns out that fate really seems to hate us. Here we are in NY, trying to find some normalcy, and instead the supernatural haunts as everywhere we go. However, even though we just had a face off with… vampires and human sized turtles, I have to say that I am glad to have meet you, Barbie."

Cornelia smiled. "You are right. Perhaps we did something horrible in a past life and karma is being more of a mean bitch than usually. But at least this time I have found company who has a realistic approach to all this crap. So thanks for that vampire."

Rouge shuddered. "Ya know, that nickname may have been nice before, but now that we know that vampires really DO exist, it is kind of creepy. Could we go with something else? I'd call you Bimbo instead if ya dislike Barbie."

Cornelia chuckled: "Lets see, how about zombie, crypt chick, gouhl, ghost, emo, goth ad…"

"Okay, okay. "Rouge said while holding up her hands in defeat. Ya stick with vampire and Ah stick with Barbie. Could be worse."

"It always could. So, what do you suppose we do now?"

Rouge yawned. "We search for the next exit, try to find that hostel of yah's while avoiding dark corners, get a shower as well as some sleep, and tomorrow we can try to find a solution to our problems."

Cornelia yawned as well. "Deal. So let's go, its really getting kinda smelly."

* * *

><p><em><span>Before, shortly after Rouge left her home and mother behind:<span>_

CRASH

"DAMN YOU!"

CRACK

Another chair was reduced to splinters as a blue skinned woman continued to smash every piece of furniture she could find in the house Rouge had called _home_ not too long ago. While an unhealthy pale, blind woman was calmly observing the rampage from a corner.

"YOU KNEW!" the blue woman shouted accusingly, temporarily stopping to break things and focusing her attention on the blind woman. "You planned to have her eavesdropping on us. You chased her away from me on purpose. WHY? That was never part of the plan!"

"It's what needed to be done, Raven." The other woman explained calmly. "I take no joy in chasing her away from both of us, but you must understand that it is imperative for the future of mutantkind that she walks another past than what both of us wanted for her."

"IMPERATIVE!" The blue woman spat. "Just like it was imperative not to warn me of what Magneto would do o Kurt, let him suffer and be raised by strangers? Join my enemies? Tell me Irene, do you take pleasure in destroying every chance we might have at a family?"

Irene sighed: "Raven, you know it isn't like that. Being a precog, knowing what terrible things will happen if I allow myself to be selfish, is a heavy burden. I won't deny that what I did to you and the children was cruel, but at least it will give them and everyone else a better chance of survival."

SMASH

The table cracked in two after a viscous blow from the blue woman's fists who now had angry tears streaming down her chins. "Don't you ever dare call me Raven again. I am Mystique. Raven was the woman who loved you. And don't you come me with that damned precog excuse again. Because I just realized, if you can see the future you must have known that your actions today would cause me to finally break up with you. Yet you don't even TRY to make me stay, plead for me to remain by your side or proclaim your love like someone who really **CARED** would do. I might have been trying to forgive you after what happened to Kurt, but now I see that you simply don't care about us. You keep on telling me how you have a reason for what you do. But not once have you had enough faith in me to try and explain exactly what it is you are trying to prevent while playing **_destiny_**."

Irene remained as still as a statue, her face betraying no emotions. Yet her voice was filled with regret and acceptance. "Believe me, there are few things I'd like more than sharing what I've seen with you, letting you help me and not having to supervise the future alone. However, my precognition also lets me know that if I did tell you what I try to prevent, you'd try to go against my advice and solve it your way. Sadly, all of your tries only end in more sorrow. And if saving you that sorrow means you'll hate me, that is something I am ready to accept. But please understand when I say…."

"Stop." Mystique interrupted her. "I don't want to, can't hear your excuses anymore. I am just sick of it. So do not let us make this more complicated than it has to be. It is over. I'll do things my way now. I don't need you anymore, I'll get my children, as well as my revenge, without your cursed advise."

Not deeming the other woman worth another look, Mystique turned and strode towards the door. When she was about to step through it, she stopped and growled:

"And the good times we had together are the only reason I won't snap your neck here and now. But if you ever again come between me and MY kids, I won't hesitate. But you already knew I'd say that, didn't you!"

SLAM

Irene continued to stay in the corner for a long time, not moving a muscle. Only after she was certain that Mystique was gone she allowed letting a single tear roll down her check.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

Okay, I hope that was sufficient enough to spark some interest. While a friend warned me that massive crossovers don't work well, I am still going to include as much into this as possible, while trying not to rush things or make it confusing. We'll see how that works. Without spoiling to much, this story will contain elements from DC, Marvel, every cartoon ever associated with the grand master himself, Greg Weisman (except Starship Troopers Roughnecks for obvious reasons) as well as some old cartoons that I personally feel not ashamed of still liking them as an adult.

For a better understanding of the situation, I'll give the original stories from the franchises I take the characters I use from some little, most of the time mean twists to get them out of their stories and into mine. I think what I did with Rouge is evident to everyone who watched the cartoon, and I'll reveal later what exactly happened to Cornelia to make her abandon W.I.T.C.H..

I have to admit, I have never been to America and geography wasn't my best subject. I guess it usually does take more than a day to go from Mississippi to NY by car. But hey, to my knowledge DC never bothered to explain where exactly Gotham and Metropolis are supposed to be, so I hope me screwing around with geography a bit can be forgiven. By the way, I think Heatherfield, the town where W.I.T.C.H. takes place is purely fictional, if not, apologies to its inhabitants. Anyhow, I'll just place it somewhere in Mississippi so it makes SOME sense for Rouge and Cornelia to meet.

And I hope this wasn't too confusing for people who don't know W.I.T.C.H. (I guess everybody knows at least some X-Men).

So, next time the two protagonists make plans, new protagonists are introduced as well as antagonists. Stay tuned, I try to make the wait as brief as possible.


End file.
